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The Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure (FFII) is a non-profit organisation dedicated to establishing a free market in information technology, by the removal of barriers to competition. The FFII was largely responsible for the rejection of the EU software patent directive in July 2005, working closely with the European Parliament and many partners from industry and civil society.
CNET awarded the FFII the Outstanding contribution to software development award for this work, which was the result of years of research, policy, and action.
Today we continue to defend your right to a free and competitive software market by working towards sane patent systems and open standards.

Ten Core Clarifications
to be achieved by a Directive on the Limiting Rules for the Patentability of Computer-Aided Inventions
— Hartmut Pilch FFII Founder

The EPO mass-produces broad and trivial patents on unpatentable subject matters in order to finance itself, without much regard to competitiveness of European industries. The existing unitary system has already gone out of control, and the post-grant unitary system under discussion now would make the system even more﻿ self-referential and unreformable East-Asians are already﻿ among the big customers of the EPO and as their share increases the protectionist effect of the system decreases.
— Hartmut Pilch FFII Founder

In July 2005, after several failed attempts to legalise software patents in Europe, the patent establishment changed its strategy. Instead of explicitly seeking to sanction the patentability of software, they are now seeking to create a central European patent court, which would establish and enforce patentability rules in their favor, without any possibility of correction by competing courts or democratically elected legislators.
— Benjamin Henrion FFII President

To fight against software patents is a priority for those who don’t want an european patent law dictated by some industrial lobbies
— Rene Paul Mages FFII Vice President